1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to copier-printer systems, and more particularly to systems capable of printing coded information as well as copying information from original documents onto sheets of paper using a xerographic or similar printing process.
2. History of the Prior Art
It is known to provide copier-printer systems which are capable of copying information from original documents onto sheets of paper and printing coded information on other sheets of paper using a xerographic or similar printing process. An example of such a system is provided by International Business Machines 6670 (IBM 6670) Copier-Printer System. A co-pending application of Roger E. Kuseski, Ser. No. 802,095, filed May 31, 1977, entitled Copy Production Machines and commonly assigned with the present application describes processor control of the IBM 6670 Copier-Printer system including control of the system during copying of non-coded information from original documents and during printing of coded information. Such copying and printing are carried out as separate and independent operations with one interrupting the other where necessary. Thus, there is no suggestion or description of how the non-coded information copied from original documents could be integrated with the printing of coded information to form a single document of one or more pages which combines the two different types of information. Such a capability would be most useful, for example, in the case of a document where charts, graphs or similar non-coded information is desired to be merged within the document and preferably within individual pages of the document with coded information which may consist of figure numbers, legends or other explanatory text in conjunction with the charts or graphs as well as other text.
Various other patents describe portions of the IBM 6670 Copier-Printer System and similar types of systems. Such patents include U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,471 of Branham et al which describes a copying capability in a laser printer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,486 of Schomburg which describes character generation and the use of a magnetic card reader and a page memory within a copier-printer system and U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,627 of Hooker et al which provides further description of character generation including laser image generation and serialization of data for printing. Patents which describe specific portions and features of copier-printer systems include U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,516 of Colgazier et al which describes a system having primary, secondary and duplex paper trays, U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,839 of Bullock et al which describes output bins and the manner in which paper can be inverted prior to entry into the bins and U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,232 of Hubbard which describes use of a duplex tray within a processor controlled copier-printer system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,380 of Donohue et al provides a further example of a processor controller copier-duplicator.
Still other patents which are of interest with respect to copier-printer systems include U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,145 of Ricards et al which discloses the merging of text from a computer or memory with illustrations physically stored in the device, U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,591 of Hill et al which shows a font selection for a printer where different fonts are stored in separate memories and selected during printing, U.S. Pat. No. 3,744,899 of Sable which discloses a method for printing variable data on documents and xerographically overprinting appropriate forms on the printed data in a second set, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,936,180 of Willard et al which describes a xerographic printing system having an additional input providing for overlay of forms.
As noted above it would be desirable to be able to merge different types of information in a copier-printer system so that, for example, non-coded information and coded information could be merged in a given document calling for both the copying of non-coded information and the printing of coded information. None of the systems and equipment therefor described by the above patents provide this capability.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for merging different types of information such as non-coded and coded information in a copier-printer system.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus in which non-coded information copied from original documents and coded information to be printed can be provided on different pages of a given document or even merged onto the same pages within the document using mostly available copier-printer hardware.